Post 31: 'DANS LES RUES D'ANTIBES'

A couple of years ago, my friend Jonathan Graham suggested we should have a go at playing Dans Les Rues d'Antibes. I believe it was written in 1955 by the great clarinet and saxophone player from New Orleans - Sidney Bechet. It was a tune I did not know well enough to attempt there and then.

So I worked it out. I got it into a shape that seemed reasonably good. I put it into my mini filofax (see below). Since then I have played it many times with bands. It's pretty easy to improvise on the main theme (because it has few and predictable chord changes) and the tune goes down well with audiences.

Post 30: FRESH HOPE FROM SCARBOROUGH

Often, I have bemoaned the fact that - here in England - if you go to a pub or jazz club to listen to a traditional jazz band, you will usually find yourself in a small audience whose average age is 75; and there is a fair chance that the music will sound tired and mechanical and lacking in creativity, though perhaps this is not surprising as we musicians are in our 70s and 80s too. Thank goodness (as I have often said) there are some young people producing more exciting traditional jazz in other parts of the world. Many of them are to be heard every day on Frenchmen Street and Royal Street in New Orleans. Here in England we have just a few.

I must share with you the latest bit of Good News to reach me. It comes from Scarborough, Yorkshire, on the east coast of England, about 220 miles north of London. At school there as recently as 2010, Laurence Marshall - a talented young player of several instruments, including the trumpet, trombone and sousaphone - joined up with fellow members of school bands and orchestras to form The Jelly Roll Jazz Band.

Laurence says: We did a lot of busking, and trad was perfect as the repertoire we played was happy and upbeat and lots of people know the tunes in the backs of their heads. It always made us some pocket money and it's very fun music to play as you can do whatever you want really.

Since then, the members of the band have passed through universities, where most of them studied music in some form, though Michael, the clarinet player, read Chemistry. They kept the band going by playing together during their holidays.

Having graduated, they embarked on professional careers, some as musicians; but one is a school-teacher and another works for a healthcare software company. Even though they are more scattered now, the band is flourishing and they have even made a CD.

The Jelly Roll Jazz Band can comprise anything from three to six players. In various formats (often just as a trio) it has frequently busked in Scarborough Town Centre, where the young musicians found themselves attracting plenty of bookings as well as spreading joy among the shoppers. CLICK HERE to see the trio playing Ice Cream.

CLICK HERE to watch four of them playing Yes, Sir, That's My Baby.

They play in a lively, energetic fashion and I'm told they frequently add to the entertainment by introducing comedy elements and routines.

So these are English traditional jazz musicians still in their early 20s! You will notice that they are very good players of their instruments. I hope they will keep up the good work and go on developing.

The Jelly Roll Jazz Band

Laurence Marshall: sousaphone, trumpet, etc.

Michael Grant: clarinet

Dan Wackett: banjo

Rosie Pickering: tenor saxophone

Ben Sarney: double bass

James Ure: sousaphone

Post 29: IMPROVISING YOUR FIRST JAZZ SOLO

This post is aimed at any beginner trying to play traditional jazz and wanting to get established in a band. So I apologise to the many readers who will not find this topic of interest.

But, judging from many emails I have received,  I believe that the effort of writing it will be worthwhile.

O.K. You can play your instrument reasonably well and you have learned a few tunes. You have joined a band - maybe of fellow beginners, maybe an established band. Within the tunes you play, you will be expected occasionally to take 'solo' choruses.

Doing this at first can be a daunting experience. However hard you try, you are likely to play some 'wrong' and ugly-sounding notes. But don't worry. Your fellow musicians will support you. Stick at it and you will gradually improve.

The better prepared you are, the easier it will be. Get to know the correct notes of the tune well. Master keys and scales and be very conscious of the key in which you are playing. If possible, memorise the tune's chord sequence too.

Keep things simple when you first take a solo. It may help to do little more than play the melody, with minimal decoration.

Let's say you are going to improvise a Chorus on The Darktown Strutters Ball in the key of C.

Right, you know the first four bars go like this:

So you could play close to the melody but quite effectively, for example:

You are keeping in mind the chord structure of these bars, so you are using notes largely running through those chords. By the way, the 'passing' A7 chord is there in Bar 2 but when improvising you need not worry too much about that.

With a little experience, you can later start to be more adventurous. You can get away from the melody but still be in harmony with it and keeping on the chords. For example, if you know the first chord of a tune, it's often a good idea to begin your improvisation on the flattened third, going immediately from it to the third. So note how Eb and E are used in Bar 1 below.

In your anxiety, you may want to make sure that you are playing something on every beat of every bar. But good improvised solos often include little breaks - moments of silence. These can be specially effective on the first beat or two of the bar (as in Bar 3 here) and they give you time to 'feel' the chord and make sure you are on it.

That is simple enough but it runs nicely down through the C chord (Bars 1 and 2) and the D7 chord (Bars 3 and 4) and sounds effective.

The Chorus of The Darktown Strutters Ball actually comprises 20 bars, of which I have dealt with only the first four.

So you will have to treat the other 16 bars in the same way. But I hope I have given some ideas on how to get going.

As your confidence increases, try to be more relaxed. Allow for those moments of silence I have mentioned. This is easier said than done; and you must not be relaxed to the point of becoming casual. If you do so, you will make mistakes. But try not to be rushed. Listen to the other members of the band as you play: doing so will help to avoid playing those 'ugly' notes.

Footnote


The book 'Playing Traditional Jazz' by Pops Coffee is available from Amazon.

Post 28: UNRECORDED REPERTOIRE OF TUBA SKINNY

Question

Which tunes have Tuba Skinny been seen playing (on YouTube) but have not yet recorded on any of their seven CDs (as at April 2016)?

Answer:

All I Want is a Spoonful

Ballin' The Jack

Bill Bailey

Billy Goat Stomp

Black Mountain Blues

Blue
Blue Devil Blues

Blue Moon of Kentucky Keep on Shining
Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me

Bumblebee

Carpet Alley Breakdown

C.C. (See See) Rider
Cemetery Blues

Coquette
Cotton Pickers' Rag
Crazy Blues

Crumpled Paper
Dallas Blues

Dangerous Blues

Dirty TB Blues

Don't You Feel My Leg
Dodo Blues
Do It Right
Dónde Están Corazón
Dreaming The Hours Away
Droppin’ Shucks

Dusty Rag

Dyin’ Blues

Eagle Riding Papa
Egyptian Ella

Everybody Loves My Baby

Exactly Like You

Faraway Blues
Farewell to Storyville

Fingering With Your Fingers
Forget Me Not Blues
Fourth Street Mess Around
Freight Train Blues

Frisco Bound

Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You

Going to Germany
Good Liquor Gonna Carry Me Down
Good Time Flat Blues

Grandpa's Spells
Hard Pushin' Papa
Hear Me Talkin’ To Ya

Hey Hey, Your Mama's Feeling Blue (Blind Blake's Blues)

High Society
Honey

How Can It Be?
How Come You Do Me Like You Do Do Do?

Ice Man

If It Don't Fit, Don't Force It

If You Take Me Back
I Get The Blues
I Got a Man in the 'Bama Mines
I Got a Woman
I'll See You in the Spring
I'm a Winin' Boy
I’m Goin’ Back Home
I'm Gonna Be a Sweet Lovin' Ol' Soul
I'm Gonna Grab Me A Freight Train
In Harlem's Araby

It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine

Jackass Blues

Jailhouse Blues

Jazz Battle
Jubilee Stomp

Julianne
Just a Closer Walk With Thee

Kansas City Stomps

Lily of the Valley
Lovesick Blues (I Got a Feeling Called the Blues)

Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor (Atlanta Blues)
Marie
Michigander Blues

Mississippi River Blues
Moanin’ The Blues

New Dirty Dozens

Nothin' [aka Dodo Blues]

Old Red

Ol' Miss Rag
One More Thing

Over in  the Gloryland
Papa Let Me Lay It On You
Perdido Street Blues

Please Come Back To Me
San

Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down

Savoy Blues
See See Rider
Shine On, Harvest Moon

Sidewalk Blues
Sleepy Time Blues
Sold My Soul, Sold it to the Devil
So Long
Somebody Else is Taking My Place

Some Day I’ll Be Gone Away

Some Day, Sweetheart
Stavin' Chain

St. Louis Blues
Sunset Waltz
Sweet Potato Blues

Tangle Blues
That's It
Them Has Been Blues
Throw Your Black Hand Down

Tiger Rag

Tin Roof Blues

Tishomingo Blues
Tom Cat Blues
True Love

Up a Lazy River

Vine Street Drag

Viper Mad
Wabash Blues
Weary Blues

Wee Midnight Hours
What if We Do?
What’s the Matter With the Mill?

When My Dreamboat Comes Home

When You and I Were Young, Maggie
Wild Man Blues

Winin' Boy Blues

Won’t You Be Kind to Me?

Yearning
Yellow Dog Blues

Yes Sir That’s My Baby

............and a few more that I can't identify.

What an impressive repertoire they have!

Post 27: TRADITIONAL JAZZ TUNES FROM 1910

Sometimes it's fun and interesting to pick a year at random and then find out which tunes from that year are still in the repertoire of traditional jazz bands today. Usually you come up with some really 'good ol' good ones', as Louis Armstrong would have said. They are bound to be good: they have stood the test of time.

So let's go way way back - to 1910. Are there any tunes from that year we still play?

I guess most of us have in our repertoire Washington and Lee Swing, Memphis Blues, Down By The Old Mill Stream (that used to be a favourite of Kid Thomas), Shine, Let Me Call You Sweetheart, Some of These Days and Silver Bell.

I hope there are still a few bands playing Dill Pickles.

A clarinet-playing friend makes a feature of All That I Ask of You is Love and another plays Joshua.

I don't think that's a bad crop from a year so long ago.

But does anybody still play The Spaghetti Rag? I doubt it.

Post 26: IRVING BERLIN'S 'CHEEK TO CHEEK'

I'm pleased to say there are people (well, three or four!) who regularly turn up to hear the bands in which I play. One of them recently requested that we should include Cheek to Cheek in our next performance.

This caused some consternation. We wondered whether Cheek to Cheek was a suitable tune for a traditional jazz band. It's trickier than standard 32-bar songs, because it runs to 72 bars and the structure is A-A-B-C-A. (Part C is just 8 bars, mainly using minor and diminished chords.)

Our supporter pointed out that the Ken Colyer Band recorded it in 1959. Listen to this by CLICKING HERE.

So we decided to attempt it (in the key of C - as used by Colyer). We adopted Colyer's solution to the challenges. He simply played Cheek to Cheek through three times in a fairly formal manner (total 216 bars [3 x 72]), with ensemble all the way, apart from in a few bars.

We also thought just three choruses would be quite enough. We played two ensemble, with our clarinet player providing a pretty good vocal between them. It turned out reasonably well, but I think it would be foolhardy for anyone (in our band at least) to attempt a full improvised chorus over the 72 bars.

    ----

FOOTNOTE
The book Playing Traditional Jazz by Pops Coffee is available from Amazon.

Post 25: ONE-NIGHT STANDS

As someone interested in both the history of the English Language and the history of  bands, I was pleased to come across the origin of the expression 'one-night stand'.

In the early days of the brass band movement in America (I'm talking of the middle of the Nineteenth Century), most concerts were given in the open air. At that time, not many towns had yet built permanent bandstands. So some of the bands had their own bandstand in portable kit form.

Rather like the equipment of travelling circuses, the portable bandstand could be erected for a single performance and dismantled afterwards. That is why such bandstands became known as 'one-night stands'; and that is the origin of the expression.

Half-way Stage - between One-Night Stands and Permanent Bandstands

These bandstands were moved around on horse-drawn carts. And incidentally, carts themselves were often used as 'bandstands'. Later, as in the photograph below, motorised transport was used in a similar way.

It's interesting how such expressions change their usage over the decades. People today speak of a 'one-night stand' without any idea that the original 'stand' was a bandstand.

Here's an English jazz band on the back of a truck in the 1950s.

Even in more modern times, bands sometimes appear on the backs of carts. Here's a jazz band in Wisbech, England, in the 1980s. Incidentally, the boy on banjo is Sean Moyses, who went on to turn professional and become recognised as one of the best banjo players in the world.

And here is another: very much a modern one-night (or one-day) stand.

Post 24: 'ICE MAN'

One of the 2013 videos of Tuba Skinny, brought to us by the generous digitalalexa, is a performance of Ice Man.

The band is playing for fun, outdoors, late on a warm summer evening. It is almost completely dark.

You can watch the performance if you:

CLICK HERE.

I had never heard of Ice Man (but I have now discovered there were several tunes of this title: one was written and recorded by Memphis Minnie in 1936). The one played by Tuba Skinny, however, is believed to be an old Cajun music theme, composer unknown.

It is one of the most delightful and infectious music performances you will come across.

Six members of the band are present and they are totally relaxed, making music just to please themselves and for the sheer joy of it.

Ice Man is essentially a simple eight-bar theme, using just the tonic and dominant chords. It's the kind of tune that could have been composed on the back of an envelope in about 15 minutes. Maybe it was!

My guess is that this was Tuba Skinny's first-ever performance of the tune. The context and treatment suggest that it was played at the request of (and led by) the guitarist, who was the only one who knew the words of the spoken 'verses'. The fact that they play it in the key of G (usually considered awkward for Bb brass instruments) supports the theory that the key was chosen to please the guitarist.

Tuba Skinny show us what can be achieved even with such simple material.

Notice the perfect line laid down by Todd Burdick's tuba. Enjoy Robin's use of the full range of his percussion, including the makeshift cymbal. And note how the two of them work smartly together at each 'cut-off' point. Enjoy the close-harmony singing of the two ladies (Shaye and Erika). Admire Barnabus's usual creative work on the trombone. And note as always Shaye's magical work on the cornet - a perfect bluesy 8 bars at 2 mins 50 secs, and her astonishing colouring behind the brief trombone solo at 1 min 49 secs.

Incidentally, if you are a beginner trying to learn to play traditional jazz, this would make a very good tune for you to try first. Here you go:

etc.

Post 23: THE ICEBERG CHORD

If you are beginning to play traditional jazz and trying to develop your skills at improvisation, one of the lessons you have to learn concerns the occasional appearance of the chord III^7th in bars (measures) 23 and 24 .

As you probably know, in 32-bar songs, it helps to 'feel' the tune as four groups of eight bars.

And in just a few of these 32-bar structures (enough to catch you out), the final two bars in the third group of eight (Bars 23 and 24) are based on the chord of III^7th . This means that, if you are in the key of C, for example, then that chord will be E^7th. If you are in the key of F, that chord will be A^7th  .... and so on. Get it?

In this example, I have highlighted Bars 23 and 24 of It's a Long Way To Tipperary. As you can see, if you are playing the tune in C, then these two bars are based on E^7th 

The effect of this chord is usually to provide an exciting mini-climax to the tune, leading to a rapid intake of breath before you motor into the satisfying final eight bars. Incidentally, in these situations, it often happens that those final eight bars (25 - 32) follow The Sunshine Sequence, so that makes improvising through them quite simple. I have written about The Sunshine Sequence before. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

As the use of III^7th in Bars 23 - 24 is a somewhat unusual chord development, I have noticed players being taken by surprise by it and producing something that sounds horribly wrong during those two bars.

So when you are improvising, it is important to be aware when this chord is coming up. Look upon it as an iceberg on the horizon: don't let it knock you off your course. You must improvise on that chord at that point in the tune. If you do anything else, the effect can be excruciating.

Here are a few examples of songs you need to be aware of because they employ that device in Bars 23 - 24.

Ain't Gonna Give Nobody None of My Jelly Roll

Alice Blue Gown

All By Myself

Any Time

Barefoot Boy

Beneath Hawaiian Skies

Big Bear Stomp (main theme)

Blame it on the Blues (main theme)

Come Back Sweet Pappa

Crying for the Carolines

Dancing With Tears in My Eyes

Don't Bring Lulu

Down in Jungle Town

Fidgety Feet (main theme)

For Me and My Girl

Heart of My Heart

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

I'm Nobody's Baby

I'm Sorry I Made You Cry

It Happened in Monterey
I've Never Been to New York (the Jonathan Doyle composition)

If I Had a Talking Picture of You

In Apple Blossom Time

Irish Black Bottom

It's a Long Way to Tipperary

Mama's Gone, Goodbye

Margie

Mobile Stomp

Moose March

My Cutie's Due at Two to Two

New Orleans Shuffle

New Orleans Wiggle (main theme)

Paper Doll

Red Hot Mama

Roses of Picardy

Running Wild

Salutation March (main theme)

The Breeze

The Curse of an Aching Heart

The Sheik of Araby

The Waltz You Saved for Me

The World is Waiting for the Sunrise

There's a Blue Ridge Round My Heart Virginia

Tishomingo Blues

Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie

When You Wore a Tulip

You Were Meant for Me

You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You

Post 22: 'NEED A LTTLE SUGAR IN MY BOWL'; AND THE RESEARCHER DICK BAKER

Click on THIS VIDEO. It is concise (only 30 bars in total) and therefore simple for musicians to learn and memorise. It has a good, strong, easily-singable melody and a very pleasant down-the-ladder harmonic progression (plus The Sunshine Chord Sequence at the end). Bars 7 and 8 of the Chorus can be played as a 'Break' - to be taken either by a singer or by a member of the band; and Bars 17 and 18 of the Chorus are an appealing 'Tag'. For all these reasons, I Need A Little Sugar In My Bowl is a very good tune for jazz bands to have in their repertoire.

I have written before about the amazing Dick Baker who has spent decades researching the origins and histories of tunes played by traditional jazz bands. He now has information about nearly 4000 tunes on his website, which runs to over 400 pages of closely-typed information: CLICK HERE; and then go to Stomp Off Records Project.

Dick has been tracing the origins of I Need A Little Sugar In My Bowl, the song made famous by Bessie Smith and - more recently - brilliantly revived by Tuba Skinny and their fine singer Erika Lewis.

Dick sent me an email:

Ivan, In my quest to update and improve the Stomp Off index, I went hunting for this on a trip to the Library of Congress in January. The composers were actually Dally Small, Clarence Williams and J. Tim Brymn, and the filed copyright was "I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl." The original lead sheet, possibly in Clarence Williams's handwriting, is attached. The copyright as printed in the book reads I need a little sugar in my bowl words and melody by C. Williams, Dally Small and J. T. Brymn. © 1 c. Jan. 14, 1932; E unp. 50141; Clarence Williams music pub. co., inc., New York. The record label, alas, screwed things up a bit. The initial "I" was dropped (but it's common for record companies to shorten, streamline, or otherwise change titles for their labels), but the composer credit on the Columbia 14634-D label is Williams, Byrne [or poss. Byrns] and Small. There WAS a composer named W. A. D. "Danny" Small, but this evidently isn't that guy.

Here is the leadsheet Dick discovered. What is interesting about it? It is dated (rubber stamp) '1932'. The composers are given as stated by Dick. The tune is set in the key of Ab, with a melody line and no chords for the Chorus and a melody line and a few hints at chords for the Verse. The Verse has 16 bars. The Chorus has 18 bars (really 16 bars plus a two-bar tag).

The 16-bar Verse is typical of its time - not specially interesting melodically, simple and with a repeated phrase, and ending with a dominant 7th to lead into the Chorus.

What I find strange is that Bessie Smith recorded it (in a musically very good version) in 1931; and yet the copyright manuscript (not such good music - especially the Verse) is dated 1932. I would have expected it to be the other way round.

Bessie Smith sang a shorter (12-bar) verse which is better than the 16-bar Verse in the manuscript.

Turning to the Chorus, Bessie's version is very close to the manuscript version of the melody.

Bessie, by the way, sang the song in the key of F, though the manuscript is in Ab.

When Tuba Skinny recorded the song (on their first CD, in May 2009), they based their performance on the Bessie Smith version, including the 12-bar Verse and using the key of F.

Here are the lyrics Dick Baker discovered. Bessie Smith kept close to the first three lines of the Verse, but scrapped the remaining three, replacing them with one line (thereby reducing the Verse to 12 bars). With regard to the Chorus, Bessie pretty well kept the words as in the manuscript, though she slightly amended a couple of phrases.

Bessie then went on to sing a second Chorus (not typed into the manuscript above). This second Chorus was based on the first, but with cruder metaphors.

I'm pleased Tuba Skinny's version omits Bessie's second Chorus altogether. Erika Lewis sings the Verse and first Chorus only, following Bessie Smith but with a little toning down of the language, conveying a mood rather than archness. And Tuba Skinny abbreviates the title even further to Need a Little Sugar.

Writers of jazz history books in the past used to snigger like schoolboys at the 'innuendos' in the lyrics of songs performed by the likes of Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey and Lucille Bogan.  (In England, we had the songs of George Formby: their 'cheekiness' was fashionable at one time.) But we live in an age when people are neither amused nor shocked by the metaphors used; and today there is little appetite for this kind of verbal humour.

So, regardless of the lyrics, let us value this tune for its conveying of mood, its conciseness, its simplicity, its strong melody, its harmonic progression, its 'Break' and its 'Tag'.

Long before I received the photocopy of the manuscript above from Dick Baker, I did my best to pick the tune out by ear. This is the 'Need a Little Sugar' leadsheet that I came up with (as in the recordings: 12-bar verse and an 18-bar chorus). It's good enough for me.

==============
Footnote

My three books about traditional jazz are available from Amazon.